Jonathon Nevett Named CEO of Public Interest Registry

4 Dec 2018
2 min read

Seasoned Industry Leader Selected to Guide the Future of the Organization and Drive the Growth of .ORG

RESTON, Va., December 5, 2018 – Public Interest Registry (PIR), the nonprofit operator of the .org domain, today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously selected Jonathon Nevett as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective December 17, 2018. With deep expertise in the domain name industry, Nevett will guide the growth of the .org domain while advancing the organization’s advocacy efforts in support of collaboration, safety and security on the internet.

“It is my great pleasure to announce Jonathon Nevett's appointment as the new CEO of Public Interest Registry,” said Lise Fuhr, chair of the Public Interest Registry Board of Directors. “Jon’s combination of industry expertise, commercial experience, ethical values and commitment to our nonprofit mission means we will continue our leadership as an exemplary registry. I would also like to thank fellow board member Jay Daley for acting as our interim CEO and laying the foundation for an enhanced and refocused strategy that ensures the resilience of .org and its continuing place as the go-to domain for mission-driven organizations and individuals.”

Nevett will bring his proven track-record of leadership to Public Interest Registry and reaffirm its continued ambition to be an exemplary registry. He will spearhead the organization’s strategy to expand the reach of the .org domain, strengthen security and resiliency, and advance outreach and education to the millions of forward-looking organizations and individuals that rely on Public Interest Registry’s domains.

Nevett co-founded Donuts Inc. in 2010 and helped to raise in excess of $150 million to form a registry of more than 240 top-level domains. He served as Donuts' executive vice president for corporate affairs and on its Board of Directors. Nevett is also a founding board member of the Domain Name Association, the domain name industry's trade association. Previously, Nevett served as senior vice president at Network Solutions, where he was responsible for policy, government affairs, registry relations, and the corporate ethics office. He also served as chair of the board of NameJet and Central Registry Solutions.

Nevett has served on numerous task forces, working groups and panels for ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). He is a member of the ICANN Nominating Committee and served on ICANN's IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group, the group tasked with steering the move of this function from the United States Government to the global multi-stakeholder community. In 2009, Jon was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Online Safety and Technology Working Group related to issues of child safety and the internet.

“Over the course of my career in the domain industry, I have admired Public Interest Registry and its dynamic team. I’m incredibly humbled to be part of it,” said Nevett. “PIR has a long history of ensuring all who are committed to the public interest have a voice online. I look forward to working with the growing PIR team and wider domain industry to continue advancing that mission.”

Nevett received his Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School and his undergraduate degree with honors from Binghamton University. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the Green Acres School, a progressive school located in Rockville, Maryland.

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About Public Interest Registry

Public Interest Registry is a nonprofit corporation that operates the .org top-level domain — the world's third largest "generic" top-level domain with more than 10 million domain names registered worldwide. As an advocate for collaboration, safety and security on the internet, Public Interest Registry's mission is to educate and enable the global noncommercial community to use the internet more effectively, and to take a leadership position among internet stakeholders on policy and other issues relating to the domain naming system. Public Interest Registry was founded by the Internet Society (internetsociety.org) in 2002 and is based in Reston, Virginia, USA.

Media Contact:
Riley McBride Smith
[email protected]
(202) 591-1125

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